


take away the dark inside (and lead me to the light)

by hearden



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 08:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14328387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearden/pseuds/hearden
Summary: In another universe, Trini moves before she ever discovers her power coin, and Rita Repulsa brings Angel Grove to its knees.





	1. leave it all behind

**Author's Note:**

> me? start a fic that i won't finish? it's more likely than you think!
> 
> also can you believe I'M actually writing reboot trimberly... [jason voice] weird, right?

**September: Fifteen Months Earlier**

Trini shuts the trunk with a huff. It was all in there -- the things she and her family would need. All of their furniture was already in the moving van, and the essentials went into her dad's SUV. This happens every time, but she's always stricken by how _all_ of her life can fit into a couple of boxes and vehicles and taken anywhere else in the country. Her plants are safely padded away, hopefully not to be harmed on the drive to Washington. She sighs and gets into the back of the SUV, next to her brothers.

Elsewhere, in the city, as her dad starts the engine and pulls away from their house, a disgruntled boy in red gets out of his dad's truck, slams the door shut, and walks through the doors of Angel Grove High.

A girl in pink passes him in the hallway, her eyes not coming up to meet his, completely engrossed by her phone. She takes her seat near the back of the room, near a boy in a blue sweater who's quietly murmuring to himself as he works on a drawing in his notebook.

In the mountains where Trini would've been up during this same time of every Saturday, a boy in black climbs up on the roof of an old, rusted down train car and spies the empty spot where she'd normally be meditating. He checks his watch, almost frowns, but then shrugs it off and gives it no further thought.

The _Welcome to Angel Grove_ sign flies by, disappearing in the distance as they leave another city once again.

Three schools in three years.

Now, it'd be four schools in four years.

Trini sinks into her seat and pulls her yellow beanie over her eyes, settling in for a long ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fic and chapter titles from Close Your Eyes - Breaking Benjamin
> 
> this prologue is most definitely the shortest thing i've ever written but it's a prologue so whatever^tm


	2. show me where it all begins

**December: Fifteen Months Later**

"Maybe," Trini says into the quiet of the cramped apartment, "We'll even get there before Christmas."

There's scattered chuckles around the room. They're all there with other families, all hopefully looking for safe passage to the South or, even better, further east. Her parents are the only ones who crack a smile at the thought -- her mom just slightly and her dad fully. They've grown closer over time. It's become a requirement, one that Trini didn't expect when it came but should've figured would happen. Survive or die, and survive meant getting along with the people she was stuck with, in this case, her family.

School in Washington had been pushed back for months after Rita had attacked. Trini and her family had huddled together in the living room of their house in Seattle, watching the news reports of a giant, gold monstrosity tearing up the Angel Grove Trini had known for a little over a whole year.

The gold thing had dug and dug, looking for something underneath the town, and something happened that Trini hadn't quite understood, but whatever it was was enough to make Rita angry.

And, then, she turned Angel Grove to stone.

They had fled, after that, because if Angel Grove wasn't safe, then the states closest to California weren't either. Go east had been the plan, and it was a plan that everyone else who lived on the West Coast all had at the same chaotic moment of realization. Roads and flights were backed up beyond hell, worse in the midst of California, and Trini, for once, was glad that she and her family had moved mere days before shit had hit the fan. That'd been a narrow bullet to dodge.

There had been many more bullets to dodge after that, though. Rita threatened countries into submission, resorting to heartless violence when she was met with resistance, and through it all, nobody could meet her demands. Trini never quite understood what those demands were -- nobody did really -- but it had to do with some sort of coin that Rita kept going on about. She asked for souls of purity and strength who were worthy -- of  _ what, _ Trini wasn't sure -- and promised that all of the destruction would stop once she was provided with what she was asking for. It had sounded like a trap to Trini, but some brave people caved in, sending their children or even going themselves. Rulers, diplomats, soldiers. None of them were ever seen again, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened to them.

Months passed, and Rita's wrath hit a breaking point.

For the first time, she had someone by her side when she broadcasted her voice and image to screens all over. Trini would never forget where she was the first time she saw the Green Ranger, huddled with her brothers in the back of her dad's SUV and scarfing down what breakfast they had managed to grab from a gas station a couple miles back. She'd seen it on her Facebook feed and then Twitter and then Snapchat. There was something so menacing about that dark green armor and the faintly shimmering gold shield over the chestplate -- like the picture of a mighty warrior who could save them all. But, this was the real world, and Trini had stopped hoping for a miracle a long time ago.

The Green Ranger stayed silent the entire time, a still and threatening presence in the background, but Rita's message, said and unsaid, was clear, nevertheless. Things were changing. Rita had taken someone and turned them into her enforcer, her eyes and ears to find these souls of purity and strength that she kept looking for. It put a new layer of meaning onto every interaction Trini had, a newfound level of suspicion that she had had before but amplified. The world around her reflected the beginning of a new era and way of living, too, under Rita's rule. At first, people had pretended like things were okay, that going to work and school made sense, even if an entire city was frozen in stone like some horrific fairy tale, but it had just been a desperate attempt to grasp at the short straws of normalcy. It became clear with the first guarded military checkpoint that Trini and her family passed through that America and the  _ world _ were not the same anymore. The Green Ranger's arrival had made sure of that.

"Who's up for rounds tonight?" The question comes from a boy around her age named Adam. He and his family had come from California, too, but unlike Trini and hers, they had left after things went to hell. 

Trust is hard to come by, and tension has been high ever since the government turned to using its armed forces as civilian patrols once defeating Rita was out of the question. But, she knows she can trust, at least, this group that she's been with for months now. A few scrappy and haggard families -- some intact, some barely holding on -- that'd stayed together since crossing the border between Montana and Colorado. They hadn't ditched her family, even when Sammy had gotten sick and then, because this was how it  _ always _ happened, gotten Matthew sick in turn. Two ill kids would slow a group down, especially because they traveled by car and went through checkpoints instead of trying to illegally bypass them.

"I'll go," Trini says, casually raising her hand, "I haven't gone in awhile, anyway." Her mom looks like she wants to protest because Trini's one of the few teenagers, along with Adam, who does rounds, but, like everything else, they live in a different world now. It's felt like years in the steps their relationship has taken, and it does sadden her that an entire apocalypse had to happen for her mom to let go of the reins a little bit, but that's just how things are now.

Everyone keeps their things with them at all times, sometimes out of paranoia, sometimes out of practicality, so Trini just gets up and follows Adam down the stairs and out the door. "I'll check on north and west post, you take south and east?" Adam suggests.

"Yeah, sounds good," Trini nods then walks off in the direction of the east post first, drawing in a breath at how her boots crunch on the gravelly road. It's freezing out tonight as it always is, and she's long since forgotten what California weather feels like, having spent over the past year of her life in colder states. Bundling her jacket up closer around her body, Trini pulls her hood over her head, the inner fur lining keeping her ears warm.

She comes up on the east post within a fifteen-minute walk, only made slightly longer because a stray cat darts across her path, loudly mewling at her when she stares at it. Its white coat is cleaner and there's more meat on its bones than Trini would expect for a stray, but when she makes a move to come closer and pet it, the cat scrambles into an alleyway and out of sight.

Trini only knows she's come across the east post when she sees the spray-painted white line that marks the wall of the building that had once been a two-story Italian restaurant. There are windows on the second floor, looking out at the street below. One of the windows is just slightly ajar, and that one is where Trini aims a pebble that she picks up. It bounces harmlessly off of the window, but after a moment, the window slides up further and a boy with dirty blonde hair named Jayden peeks his head out.

"Yes?" he asks, a little exasperatedly, a little tiredly.

"Just checking in."

"Well, I'm still here."

"My dad's taking a nap right now," Trini says, "But he's gonna take over in about two."

"Gotcha." Jayden disappears back inside, and the window slides back down to a crack open. He's not one for many words and neither is Trini, so that's fine. There's not many extroverts in their rather large group. Makes for many quiet nights, much to her mom's palpable disappointment and frustration.

Trini pulls her radio off of her belt and calls in over the frequency they use, "Frog Prince, this is Tiger Fang. Radio check. Over."

_ "Tiger Fang, this is… Frog Prince," _ Adam replies; Trini can hear the slightest of exasperation in his tone when he pauses,  _ "Radio check. Over." _

"East post is secure. Heading for south now. Over."

_ "Roger. I'm coming up on north post. Everything checks out. Over." _

"Let me know when you get there. Out."

It's another fifteen-minute walk to the south post where Mike is holed up on the roof of a bank building. Trini rattles the fire escape and calls up her arrival to him so that he doesn't accidentally flip out on her. Scaring him is something she does too easily with how small and quiet she is. Standing on the top of the fire escape, Trini leans on the ledge of the roof but doesn't climb up. "Hey," she asks, "How are things looking up here?"

Mike shrugs, "Quiet as usual. There's some stray that keeps making noise on the ground, though. I've heard it pass by a couple of times."

Trini chuckles, "Maybe we'll pick it up for the road."

He rolls his eyes, "Great, another mouth to feed."

Trini grabs her radio as she makes her way back down the fire escape and starts transmitting, "Frog Prince, this is Tiger Fang. Over."

_ "Tiger Fang, this is Frog Prince. I read you. Over." _

"South post is secure. How are things on your end? Over."

_ "West post is all clear. I'm heading back. Over." _

"Yeah, I'll see you--"

Trini pauses the moment she jumps back down to the ground. The cat sits next to the bank's dumpster, staring at her. She bows, lowering herself to seem less threatening, and softly clicks her tongue, holding her free hand out. The cat looks hesitantly at her hand and inches toward her.

_ "Tiger Fang? Hello?" _

"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry. I just saw a cat. Over."

_ "Uh, cool? Over." _

She kneels on the ground, and the cat sniffs at her hand for a moment then noses at her palm. Smiling, she scratches it lightly behind the ears. "You're doing pretty well out here," she says, leaning closer.

That's when she smells the faint scent of some kind of fragrance in the air. Trini scrunches her nose. It's not the dumpster. She picks the cat up with her free hand and holds it to her chest. It squirms, but now that it's in her arms, she can  _ definitely _ smell some sort of lingering vanilla-y perfume of some sort.

" _ Too _ well for a stray," she murmurs to herself then transmits over the radio, "Frog Prince, I'll join you later. I'm gonna stay behind and chat with Yogi Bear for a bit. Over."

_ "Roger. Everything alright? Over." _

"Yeah," she says, letting go of the cat who immediately scrambles away, "Everything's fine. Out." She watches the direction in which the cat sprints and follows with quick but quiet steps, her hands already ready to grab the pair of daggers clipped to the back of her belt. The cat darts around a corner and keeps Trini in pursuit for another block. She loses it when it sneaks into a gap between two buildings that she positively can't squeeze through no matter how small she is because she's not some contortionist, and when Trini quickly jogs around the other side, she doesn't see the cat come out of the gap or anywhere else in the immediate area.

Trini glances at the buildings she's come to. It's an run down Barnes and Noble next to, of course, a Starbucks. Curious that the two weren't just one building but whatever. Her brow furrowing in unease, she approaches the entrance to the bookstore, opening the door and entering. Inside, it’s as much of a mess as any store she’s been in, books strewn all over the floor, tables, and counters and entire shelves knocked over. The Starbucks next door is probably not in any better shape.

Faintly, Trini hears a mewl from the back of the store to the right. She heads in that direction, passing by the science fiction and fantasy section. It takes almost tripping over a book for her to pull a keychain flashlight out of her pocket and click it on to navigate around the store. The kids' section is up ahead and it had vaguely sounded like the cat had been in there, so Trini shines her flashlight around, pausing when she finds the cat, just lounging by a stack of books and a bean bag chair. Trini takes a few steps further into the kids' area, taking in the scene. Someone… lived here. Was still currently living here. Her flashlight beam roams over a backpack, a leather jacket, and a pair of black boots on the ground. Intrigued, Trini kneels down and glances through the stack of books. A pink floral print journal, a Bible that doesn't necessarily look like it's actually from the bookstore if the moderately worn pages are any indicator, and a bunch of what seems to just be chick literature. Trini picks up each book and sets it aside, glancing through the covers:  _ What Happened to Goodbye, Everything Leads to You, Just Listen, More Than This, Hold Still, Every Day. _ Pushing the pile aside, she reaches for the backpack to look through it and possibly get an idea of who was crashing here. Even with someone on post at all hours of the day and night, it was still possible to get past all four posts that they'd set up around camp, of course, but what Trini needs to know is if whoever these books belong to -- or whoever had  _ borrowed _ them from Barnes and Noble's shelves -- is a threat or not.

Her hand is inches away from touching the strap of the backpack when an arrow flies through the air and  _ thunks _ into the wall right next to her head, narrowly missing her hair. Trini drops her flashlight in shock and almost lunges for it, but a girl's voice sternly calls out in the darkness.

"Don't move."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> these edgy ass teen idiots with their radio callsigns... i love them all
> 
> :)


End file.
